Visualize three decades of changes to the Earth s surface with Google Earth timelapses

One of our greatest innovations is our ability to look at our planet from the heavens. From hundreds of miles above the surface of our planet, we can see how everything fits together. We can see the erosion of soil over millions of years, and life that springs up in the presence of water. We also see the human experiment play out on fields and plains, along rivers and oceans. From up there, our mark is left on the planet in the form of a gray organism of concrete and steel that grows and spreads to fill in valleys and dot mountain ridges. And miles away from urban centers, other signs of our existence are found: forests are cleared and lakes are depleted.Google's Earth Engine project lets us see these changes happening over time. Google highlights changes on the planet's surface in eight spots around the world: the booming city of Las Vegas, coal mines spreading across Wyoming , irrigation in Saudi Arabia, Lake Urmia, Iran drying up, Amazon deforestation, the Columbia Glacier retreating, coastal expansion in Dubai, and the Aral Sea drying up . [More]